Won a battle, but lost the war

The lion king ranged the western hills above Lower Hutt. Wife and two daughters plus four rescued cats and a sponsorship of the Wainuiomata Lions Rugby League Club, completed his pride.

It wasn’t this pride that killed him, it was the little boy who possibly took on the responsibility of living up to his family name that blew the pressure valve; that and pride in his work ethic.

If I might suggest – pride, together with a possibly undiagnosed case of bi-polar activity; the manic-depressive set of swings, is what ‘done it your honour’.

“I get a bit manic. It’s a good wake-up call.”

Criminal defence lawyer Greg King committed suicide a year ago; he was just 42 years old. We would have expected him to be on a high after his success in a high profile case four months earlier. He had won a battle, but lost the war.

“Vampires and blood; alcohol and lawyers. It’s an age-old combination. It’s got me through many a sleepless night.”

A suicide note describing himself as exhausted, unwell, disillusioned, depressed and haunted leads us to search for meaning of those five words.

Exhausted – career driven; case after case.

Unwell – we know that Greg King had diabetes

Disillusioned – futility of the court system, human nature and more

Depressed – we could suggest that he suffered from depression – considering that he committed suicide, this is a given.

Haunted – ghosts in his past; perhaps a successful defense of a client whom he knew to be guilty.

I have no doubt in suggesting that if we were to generate a bi-wheel of the suicide as an event, we would be able to look to the heavens for some answers; interpret the tension between the planetary positions.

Astrology is a pseudo-science, is subjective and does not purport to be scientific. Our toolkit has ‘forensic astrology’ written on the lid. We handle the hard aspects; the tension in the air at given times. Snapshots are taken of planetary positions and then interpreted by classic means.

All our information comes from the public record and is therefore E&OE. The content of these interpretations is considered subjective and not accepted in a court of law.

In order to generate bi-wheels (methodology), event times provide us with a basis for our perspective. Birth horoscopes are generated at noon on the date all individuals were born.

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Of the fates, Clotho is the spinner of the thread; providing the cut of one’s jib. Lachesis allots the type of life to be lived and Atropos cuts the length of the thread, determining the time to be spent in this incarnation.

It is all predetermined, if we are to believe the ancient Greeks.

Generating a bi-wheel at the time when Greg King’s body was discovered; 10:30am, we have the 8th house cusp (manner of exit from life) at 8°Leo; death and lions – the irony is not missed…

Note the natal Saturn Rx, which is holding the handle of the fan for all his natal planets – wanting to succeed in his father’s eyes; his father to be proud of him. That’s not the focus for the suicide, but it sure tells us lots about the man – he chose his lot in life; tobe a driven individual.

Natal Moon (blue) conjunct Neptune (turquoise) = depression.

The angles – at the top of the chart/tree we note the midpoint Pluto-Sun/Uranus=MC – awareness of what’s going on beyond the self. We have a dis-empowered (Pluto) self (Sun), struggling with a mental condition (Uranus).

Transiting Sun (orange) is the date on the calendar opposite natal Saturn (the grim reaper – death) – the appointment with the grim reaper is overdue (as in yesterday).

Transiting Moon in the inner wheel (blue) opposite natal Mars (red) – identifying that the death was a result of his own actions.

When we continue with Greg King’s words and look for the phantom that might be haunting him, we don’t have to go far. I’ve got a pretty good idea of what case it might be.

I have no taste for seeking out ghosts of victims, however we can look at an event and consider how it may have haunted King. A recent high profile case, completed just a few months before the suicide, jumps up and down as the main contender.

The case:

Ewen Macdonald was tried and found not-guilty of the murder of his brother-in-law, Scott Guy. Greg King led the team for the defence and won his case. Did this outcome weigh on King’s mind; haunt him after the result?

We generate a bi-wheel with the time of the call to police at 7:08am, reporting the murder of Scott Guy as our inside wheel and the natal chart of Greg King on the outside.

Again we use standard computer generated hard aspects with classic interpretation that we have used time and time again in these forensic astrology charts.

There are no planets at the angles, but then Greg King wasn’t on the scene so we wouldn’t expect to find any, however we have plenty in the mix.

Everything to do with the man himself; Greg King, is in the shadows – behind the scenes. It is ‘the barrister’ defending, not the man.

I would suggest that King seems to have a problem setting internal boundaries between these two elements of his character.

Natal Saturn is in the career house, the 10th.

Natal Sun-Pluto conjunction identifies the power of the individual, however power has a dark side when depressed; powerless.

Peer pressure, money and status; all those 2nd house material things are in play.

Mercury, the planet of communication is where it should be; in the 3rd house – along with Jupiter holding up the mirror, inflating the rhetoric.

Transiting Lunar south node square natal Jupiter (green, in the outer wheel) – 1st-7th axis of relationships with King ‘inflated’ in the house of communication…

Transiting Sun (date that Scott Guy was murdered) square natal Mercury – these two aspects alone tell us that King will be involved in this case; communicating in some manner about the crime.

Transiting Venus (pink) in the 2nd house of money square natal Moon-Neptune – peer pressure in tension with driving needs.

Transiting Jupiter (green in the inner wheel) holds the mirror by opposition to natal Uranus – inflating the sudden changes in communication; stress of performance.

The trial only lasted a month with King giving a superb performance, enough to convince the jury that there was an element of doubt. As for the crime itself, we can turn to the charts again.

The crime:

In hindsight we are made aware of suppressed matters (at the time of the murder trial) of a criminal nature in relation to this person Ewen Macdonald – a violent man who killed animals ‘for fun’; vandalised personal property; an arsonist and someone who undermined anyone who might be ‘doing better’ than he was.

We’ve seen this behaviour many times before in children and emotionally immature adults who went on to become psychopaths; progressing from killing animals for fun to killing humans for fun. Did Macdonald go down this path and then get away with murder?

Macdonald is now convicted of the lesser crimes as referred above; a proven pathological liar. His brother is a police detective and he, the other side of the coin, a criminal.

We can expect the hysteria factor to be absent in any charts, however we will reveal what we can of this man and see what the heavens have to say, Maggie.

The victim was killed in the pre-dawn light opening a gate on his property. He was shot in the face. Did he disturb his killer? Was someone caught committing another crime; stealing animals?

Note: Shot in the lower face sounds like ‘shut up’ to me.

The inner wheel is the time of the call to police 7:08am. The outer wheel is the natal chart of Ewen Kerry Macdonald.

I have no hesitation in suggesting that Ewen Macdonald did indeed discharge a shotgun in the face of Scott Graham Guy; taking his life. Was that fun, Ewen Macdonald?

Apart from the other aspects already indicated on the bi-wheel, which I leave to others to interpret, the following midpoints come into play in Macdonald’s natal chart. This is the nature of Ewen Macdonald according to classic astrology interpretation:

Jupiter/Saturn=Mars… ambition emerges out of discontent; not wanting to toe the line.

Sun/Uranus-Jupiter… being oneself and getting away with it – rewarded/lucky.

This tension indicates that Ewen Macdonald is not a solitary killer ‘by choice’ and therefore it is imperative that this man does not consort with other violent offenders or those weaker who would likely follow him.

6 thoughts on “Won a battle, but lost the war”

This case is so very, very sad … McDonald is up for parole in a few days’ time (his second attempt) for the earlier vandalism charges; hopefully the Parole Board will flat-out decline it. He did actually rope a weaker person in on his antics in his other crimes and that young man served his own prison sentence for them.

McDonald’s former wife has now moved on to a new partner and a new life – interestingly, he made comments that appeared in a Sunday paper that he thought he could get her back (they have four children together). Personally I hope he NEVER sees the light of day.

Greg King is so very sorely missed – despite working on ‘the other side’ he had a very close relationship with the Sensible Sentencing Trust and was admired by a HUGE amount of people from all walks of life.

A very tragic outcome for all with absolutely no winners – two gorgeous boys have lost their Dad; a lovely lady has lost her husband; a wonderful family have lost their son, brother, nephew … it’s just awful 😦

Ewen Macdonald has today been denied parole, for the second time.
The Parole Board said it was not satisfied Macdonald no longer remained an undue risk to the safety of the community.
Macdonald still has two years four months until his sentence end date of April 6, 2016. He will be seen again by the board in a year.